23 leading experts reveal the ways that psychoactive plants allow nature’s “voice” to speak to humans and what this communication means for our future
• Presents the specific “human-plant interconnection” revealed by visionary plants
• Explores the relevance of plant-induced visions and shamanic teachings to humanity’s environmental crisis
• With contributions from Terence McKenna, Andrew Weil, Wade Davis, Michael Pollan, Alex Grey, Jeremy Narby, Katsi Cook, John Mohawk, Kat Harrison, and others
Visionary plants have long served indigenous peoples and their shamans as enhancers of perception, thinking, and healing. These plants can also be important guides to the reality of the natural world and how we can live harmoniously in it.
In Visionary Plant Consciousness, editor J. P. Harpignies has gathered presentations from the Bioneers annual conference of environmental and social visionaries that explore how plant consciousness affects the human condition. Twenty-three leading ethnobotanists, anthropologists, medical researchers, and cultural and religious figures such as Terence McKenna, Andrew Weil, Wade Davis, Michael Pollan, Alex Grey, Jeremy Narby, Katsi Cook, John Mohawk, and Kat Harrison, among others, present their understandings of the nature of psychoactive plants and their significant connection to humans. What they reveal is that these plants may help us access the profound intelligence in nature--the “mind of nature”--that we must learn to understand in order to survive our ecologically destructive way of life.
• Presents the specific “human-plant interconnection” revealed by visionary plants
• Explores the relevance of plant-induced visions and shamanic teachings to humanity’s environmental crisis
• With contributions from Terence McKenna, Andrew Weil, Wade Davis, Michael Pollan, Alex Grey, Jeremy Narby, Katsi Cook, John Mohawk, Kat Harrison, and others
Visionary plants have long served indigenous peoples and their shamans as enhancers of perception, thinking, and healing. These plants can also be important guides to the reality of the natural world and how we can live harmoniously in it.
In Visionary Plant Consciousness, editor J. P. Harpignies has gathered presentations from the Bioneers annual conference of environmental and social visionaries that explore how plant consciousness affects the human condition. Twenty-three leading ethnobotanists, anthropologists, medical researchers, and cultural and religious figures such as Terence McKenna, Andrew Weil, Wade Davis, Michael Pollan, Alex Grey, Jeremy Narby, Katsi Cook, John Mohawk, and Kat Harrison, among others, present their understandings of the nature of psychoactive plants and their significant connection to humans. What they reveal is that these plants may help us access the profound intelligence in nature--the “mind of nature”--that we must learn to understand in order to survive our ecologically destructive way of life.
About the Author(s) of Visionary Plant Consciousness
J. P. Harpignies is associate producer of the national Bioneers conference
(www.bioneers.org) and coproducer and founder of the Eco-Metropolis conference (www.ecometropolis.org) in New York City. He is the author of Political Ecosystems and Double Helix Hubris and the associate editor of Ecological Medicine and Nature’s Operating Instructions.
Praise for Visionary Plant Consciousness
"The uniquely knowledgeable and inspiring voices in this book provide an insightful multidisciplinary context for understanding the once and future history of human relationships with sacred plants. As the beneficial applications of psychedelics continue to re-gain credibility in mainstream science and medicine, these voices offer necessary clues about how the states of mind that sacred plants engender can be conscientiously integrated into our selves and society."
Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Founder and President, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Founder and President, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
